Three alternative browsers for Safari on iOS

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On iOS, Safari is king. It’s fast, easy to use, and ever-increasingly standards compliant. It’s the default browser, and we sadly can’t change that without jailbreaking. However, we can do the majority of our surfing in other feature-rich browsers available on iOS. Frankly, there are some very compelling reasons to do so.

Before diving in, there are some caveats that need to be discussed. Back in iOS 4.3, Apple introduce the Nitro JavaScript engine to Safari. That means running pages with a substantial amount of JavaScript in Safari would run a lot faster. For security reasons, the Nitro engine isn’t available for third parties. The only way you get the benefits of Nitro is by using Safari or a web app saved to your home screen. Using the SunSpider JavaScript benchmarking tool, it’s apparent that using Safari improves the JavaScript rendering speed over a third party by about four times. That said, I use a third-party browser most of the time, and I can’t really tell a difference on any of the sites I frequent. It won’t be a problem for most people, but your mileage may vary.

Worth noting is that other HTML or JavaScript engines are a no-no on the App Store. Opera Mini gets away with it by doing all of its rendering server-side, but the experience is less than optimal, and has potentially negative privacy implications. All browsers worth using have Safari’s WebKit back-end powering their rendering.

Chrome

Not long ago, Google released a version of its popular browser for both iPhone and iPad. It’s free in the App Store, and it does offer some benefits. Most importantly, it syncs bookmarks, passwords, history, and open tabs to Chrome on other platforms. If you’re a big Chrome user on the desktop or on Android, this is reason alone to use Chrome on iOS. The only other feature that really sets it apart from Safari is the ability to quickly switch between regular browsing and private browsing. It’s a nice feature, and that’s why many people keep Chrome around even if they typically use Safari for their browsing needs.

Dolphin

This is a browser for people who like to try new things with user experience and interface design. Available in both iPhone and iPad flavors, Dolphin is free. Well, it’s mostly free. On the iPhone, you can pay an extra $0.99 for the ability to search and navigate with your voice. As it stands, this feature doesn’t exist on the iPad just yet. The free versions do come with Dolphin’s best known feature: gestures. Tap an icon, draw a pre-defined shape, and the browser will perform an action. For example, drawing a downward arrow will take you to the bottom of the page, and drawing a lowercase “A” will bring you to Amazon’s homepage. It takes a while to get used to it, but it really does cut out a lot of frustration on repeated actions.

Atomic

Hands down, this is my browser of choice on iOS. Atomic is feature-packed, and it’s only $0.99 for both the iPhone and iPad version in a single download. Perhaps the single best feature of this app is the ability to save entire webpages for reading offline. Not just the text, but the entire thing is saved. When you’re preparing for long plane flights with no WiFi, this is a sanity saver. Tabbed browsing is commonplace now, but Safari on the iPhone still doesn’t have traditional tabs available. Atomic supports desktop-style tabs on the iPhone as well as the iPad, so no need to keep switching between pages. It also features selective ad-blocking, download-to-Dropbox support, portrait and landscape full screen mode, completely customizable themes, and much more. It’s the best alternative available, and it’s less than a buck. If you just want one extra browser to keep around, make it this one.

There are far too many options available to cover them all, but SkyFire deserves a brief mention if only because it helps solve the problem of flash videos on iOS. Most alternative browsers have free versions, so browse around if you’re really into the idea of finding new things, but you’ll be happy if you stick with the three covered here.

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